The larval morphology and the effects of sound frequencies on the settlement behaviour of the biofouling Bryozoan: Watersipora subatra

<p>Biofouling is a global issue, it is an ongoing expense for the maritime industry, billions of dollars are spent annually due to increased fuel consumption, research, maintenance and upkeep. The toxicity of anti-fouling paints is also a serious issue for the marine environment, because of the non-selective nature of the toxins they contain, they also affect non-target species, potentially harming local ecosystems. Biofouling acts as a vector for invasive species, allowing these species to spread world-wide, establish themselves in new ecosystems and potentially alter the biodiversity of the native flora and fauna. These issues with biofouling have seen an increase in research into the prevention of settlement of unwanted organisms on ship hulls; especially biofriendly, alternative options to toxic anti-fouling paints. A holistic approach to researching fouling species is vital in reducing and preventing biofouling, and with the increase in human activity in the marine environment, the effects of anthropogenic sounds on marine organisms is of growing interest. The potential effect of vessel noise on the larvae of bryozoan species has yet to be explored even though the Phylum Bryozoa is notorious for biofouling species. The morphology of larvae is also important in understanding the ecology of marine species, as various factors that influence the larval stage of a species can have latent effects in other life stages. Insight into the morphology of fouling larvae is important in understanding their life histories to develop more robust antifouling methods. Bryozoan larvae have a diverse range of morphological features to increase their survivability; a number of structures have been identified in aiding locomotion, phototaxis behaviour, suitable habitat exploration and metamorphosis. There is still a lot of speculation over the purpose of different structures and whether they have the potential to be used in other behaviours (such as auditory capabilities). This thesis focuses on the biofouling bryozoan species, Watersipora subatra, and examines their larval morphology and behaviour to better understand their early ecology and identify potential structures with auditory capabilities. SEM images of the larvae were used to identify a number of sensory organs that could potentially detect sound. A sound experiment was also conducted to test whether their larvae respond to different frequency levels (100Hz, 500Hz and 1000Hz). There was no significant difference in the settlement rate at the end of a 24-hour period between the different treatments. However, the larvae exposed to the lower frequency (100Hz) tended to be slower at settling in the initial 8 hours of the experiment, which is the optimal time to settle to increase post-settlement survivability. There is the potential for the larvae of bryozoan species to respond to sound frequencies, although more research is needed to fully elucidate their potential to sense sound and to potentially aid in developing a biofriendly, preventative solution to biofouling.</p>

The larval morphology and the effects of sound frequencies on the settlement behaviour of the biofouling Bryozoan: Watersipora subatra

<p>Biofouling is a global issue, it is an ongoing expense for the maritime industry, billions of dollars are spent annually due to increased fuel consumption, research, maintenance and upkeep. The toxicity of anti-fouling paints is also a serious issue for the marine environment, because of the non-selective nature of the toxins they contain, they also affect non-target species, potentially harming local ecosystems. Biofouling acts as a vector for invasive species, allowing these species to spread world-wide, establish themselves in new ecosystems and potentially alter the biodiversity of the native flora and fauna. These issues with biofouling have seen an increase in research into the prevention of settlement of unwanted organisms on ship hulls; especially biofriendly, alternative options to toxic anti-fouling paints. A holistic approach to researching fouling species is vital in reducing and preventing biofouling, and with the increase in human activity in the marine environment, the effects of anthropogenic sounds on marine organisms is of growing interest. The potential effect of vessel noise on the larvae of bryozoan species has yet to be explored even though the Phylum Bryozoa is notorious for biofouling species. The morphology of larvae is also important in understanding the ecology of marine species, as various factors that influence the larval stage of a species can have latent effects in other life stages. Insight into the morphology of fouling larvae is important in understanding their life histories to develop more robust antifouling methods. Bryozoan larvae have a diverse range of morphological features to increase their survivability; a number of structures have been identified in aiding locomotion, phototaxis behaviour, suitable habitat exploration and metamorphosis. There is still a lot of speculation over the purpose of different structures and whether they have the potential to be used in other behaviours (such as auditory capabilities). This thesis focuses on the biofouling bryozoan species, Watersipora subatra, and examines their larval morphology and behaviour to better understand their early ecology and identify potential structures with auditory capabilities. SEM images of the larvae were used to identify a number of sensory organs that could potentially detect sound. A sound experiment was also conducted to test whether their larvae respond to different frequency levels (100Hz, 500Hz and 1000Hz). There was no significant difference in the settlement rate at the end of a 24-hour period between the different treatments. However, the larvae exposed to the lower frequency (100Hz) tended to be slower at settling in the initial 8 hours of the experiment, which is the optimal time to settle to increase post-settlement survivability. There is the potential for the larvae of bryozoan species to respond to sound frequencies, although more research is needed to fully elucidate their potential to sense sound and to potentially aid in developing a biofriendly, preventative solution to biofouling.</p>

Object memory is multisensory: Task-irrelevant sounds improve recollection-based recognition memory

Hearing a task-irrelevant sound during object encoding can improve visual recognition memory when the sound is object-congruent (e.g., a dog and a bark). However, previous studies have only used binary old/new memory tests, which do not distinguish between recognition based on the recollection of details about the studied event or stimulus familiarity. In the present research, we hypothesized that hearing a task-irrelevant, but semantically congruent natural sound at encoding would facilitate the formation of richer memory representations, resulting in increased recollection of details of the encoded event. Experiment 1 replicated previous studies showing that participants were more confident about their memory for items that were initially encoded with a congruent sound compared to an incongruent or meaningless sound. Experiment 2 suggests that multisensory presentations specifically facilitate recollection and not familiarity-based recognition memory, and Experiment 3 demonstrates that this effect was coupled with more accurate memory for audiovisual congruency of the item and sound from encoding. These results suggest that even when congruent sounds are task-irrelevant, they produce a qualitative change in memory formation that supports recollection-based recognition memory. Given the ubiquity of encounters with multisensory objects in our everyday lives, considering their impact on episodic memory is integral to building models of memory that apply to naturalistic settings.

Musical expression means of a saxophone in the modern chamber-instrumental music

The research subject is the modern chamber-instrumental music of the late 20th - the early 21st century in the context of the newest performance and expression means and techniques of playing the saxophone as a unique wind instrument which is difficult to interpret. A wide musical expression range of modern music involving saxophone gives an opportunity to practically evaluate the depth of philosophical and figurative concepts embodied by modern composers. In this context, the author considers the peculiarities of the recommended techniques of playing the saxophone which have been detected and studied in the creative work of Yu.L. Povolotsky. The expressive timbre and sound palette attracts a modern composer with the purpose of both to experiment and to attempt to collect the wide range of artistic and philosophical generalizations of the epoch. This mutually determined process&nbsp; -&nbsp; a timbre-sound experiment, on the on hand, and a continuous expansion of the performance and expression means of a saxophone within the chamber-instrumental culture, determined by it, on the other - instigated the author to conduct a scientific analysis of the chamber-instrumental works of modern composers. Besides, of a scientific and historical value is the information about the creative process of Yu.L. Povolotsky: the involvement of out-of-the-box solutions, composition structures, and the newest ways and techniques of playing the saxophone.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Oficina De Criatividade Sonora: Concepts About Music, Images and Sounds in a Collaborative Experimental Podcast in Northern Brazil

What is sound experience? How does it relate to our interpretation and perception of art and daily life? Oficina de Criatividade Sonora – Sound Creativity Workshop – is a collaborative experimental podcast created by composer Heitor Martins Oliveira, from Brazil, in order to generate online content and interact with his students, other artists, and the community, during the global pandemic of 2020. Musician and visual artist Leonardo Luigi Perotto joined as a close collaborator. Every week, from April to June, they released an image/score on social media and received audio files – created and sent mostly via smartphones – from followers. The audio – including singing, talking, instruments, and soundscapes – was edited by Oliveira to create sound compositions or narratives. Some contributors were asked to comment on their reading of the scores. The weekly podcast episodes featured commentaries and the resulting sound experiment. Since contributors are free to interpret the images/scores, they construct their own criteria and structural principles for sound creation. Their choices are related with their life experiences in music, other arts, or any other fields. These sound experiments reveal how contributors think about images and their relation to sound and music, their cultural, political and educational significance.

Latency and Cybersickness: Impact, Causes, and Measures. A Review

Latency is a key characteristic inherent to any computer system. Motion-to-Photon (MTP) latency describes the time between the movement of a tracked object and its corresponding movement rendered and depicted by computer-generated images on a graphical output screen. High MTP latency can cause a loss of performance in interactive graphics applications and, even worse, can provoke cybersickness in Virtual Reality (VR) applications. Here, cybersickness can degrade VR experiences or may render the experiences completely unusable. It can confound research findings of an otherwise sound experiment. Latency as a contributing factor to cybersickness needs to be properly understood. Its effects need to be analyzed, its sources need to be identified, good measurement methods need to be developed, and proper counter measures need to be developed in order to reduce potentially harmful impacts of latency on the usability and safety of VR systems. Research shows that latency can exhibit intricate timing patterns with various spiking and periodic behavior. These timing behaviors may vary, yet most are found to provoke cybersickness. Overall, latency can differ drastically between different systems interfering with generalization of measurement results. This review article describes the causes and effects of latency with regard to cybersickness. We report on different existing approaches to measure and report latency. Hence, the article provides readers with the knowledge to understand and report latency for their own applications, evaluations, and experiments. It should also help to measure, identify, and finally control and counteract latency and hence gain confidence into the soundness of empirical data collected by VR exposures. Low latency increases the usability and safety of VR systems.

Looming cue sounds

Studies suggest a prioritization in the neural processing of looming sounds. A little explored issue is the relationship between this perceptual bias and the orienting and alerting auditory attention networks. The present study investigated the effect of a warning sound on the speed of response to a subsequent target sound (Experiment 1) and a possible influence of this type of cue sound on the auditory orientation of attention (Experiment 2). The results of the two experiments suggest a significant reduction in the reaction time for a subsequent target sound due to the previous presentation (500 ms) of a looming warning sound. There was no significant effect of the cue sound on auditory attention orientation.

Visual Sensitivity Shifts with Perceived Eye Position

Spatial attention can be defined as the selection of a location for privileged stimulus processing. Most oculomotor structures, such as the superior colliculus or the FEFs, play an additional role in visuospatial attention. Indeed, electrical stimulation of these structures can cause changes in visual sensitivity that are location specific. We have proposed that the recently discovered ocular proprioceptive area in the human postcentral gyrus (S1EYE) may have a similar function. This suggestion was based on the observation that a reduction of excitability in this area with TMS causes not only a shift in perceived eye position but also lateralized changes in visual sensitivity. Here we investigated whether these shifts in perceived gaze position and visual sensitivity are spatially congruent. After continuous theta burst stimulation over S1EYE, participants underestimated own eye rotation, so that saccades from a lateral eye rotation undershoot a central sound (Experiment 1). They discriminated letters faster if they were presented nearer the orbit midline (Experiment 2) and spent less time looking at locations nearer the orbit midline when searching for a nonexistent target in a letter array (Experiment 3). This suggests that visual sensitivity increased nearer the orbit midline, in the same direction as the shift in perceived eye position. This spatial congruence argues for a functional coupling between the cortical eye position signal in the somatosensory cortex and visuospatial attention.